Qualla: Picton, Lennox and Nueva https://qualla.com/picton-lennox-and-nueva en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:39:57 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/4/w/0/q/picton-lennox-and-nueva-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Picton, Lennox and Nueva https://qualla.com/picton-lennox-and-nueva Picton, Lennox and Nueva: Introduction https://qualla.com/picton-lennox-and-nueva/ Photo credit Createaccount, CC BY-SA 3.0. Three islands lie scattered at the very tail of South America, east of Navarino, where the Beagle Channel finally surrenders to the open Atlantic. Picton, Lennox and Nueva are mostly empty: tussock grass, peat, seabirds, and the relentless wind off Cape Horn. Yet in December 1978 these obscure scraps of land brought two nations to the edge of catastrophe. Argentine and Chilean fleets steamed toward each other in the dark, troops were poised, and a war between them was a matter of hours away. What stopped it was a letter from Rome.

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/4/w/0/q/picton-lennox-and-nueva-wp/4w0q-picton-lennox-and-nueva-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Picton, Lennox and Nueva: Named by Strangers https://qualla.com/picton-lennox-and-nueva/ Photo credit Createaccount, CC BY-SA 3.0. The islands carry names assigned by people passing through. The British surveyors Robert FitzRoy and Phillip Parker King christened Picton after Sir Thomas Picton, the first British governor of Trinidad. Lennox had first been sighted in 1624 by the Dutch admiral Schapenham, whose...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/4/w/0/q/picton-lennox-and-nueva-wp/4w0q-picton-lennox-and-nueva-named-by-strangers.mp3 0:06 2 full Picton, Lennox and Nueva: The Line in the Water https://qualla.com/picton-lennox-and-nueva/ Photo credit Createaccount, CC BY-SA 3.0. The trouble was a single geographic question with no obvious answer. Did the Beagle Channel, and therefore the border, run north of the three islands, making them Chilean, or south, making them Argentine? A 1977 arbitral award handed the islands to Chile. In January 1978 Argentin...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/4/w/0/q/picton-lennox-and-nueva-wp/4w0q-picton-lennox-and-nueva-the-line-in-the-water.mp3 0:06 3 full Picton, Lennox and Nueva: Hours From War https://qualla.com/picton-lennox-and-nueva/ Photo credit Createaccount, CC BY-SA 3.0. On 22 December 1978, Argentina launched Operation Soberanía, a plan to seize the islands and strike the Chilean mainland. Warships moved into position. Then, only hours in, the operation was called off, partly because of foul weather and partly because of what was arriving from t...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/4/w/0/q/picton-lennox-and-nueva-wp/4w0q-picton-lennox-and-nueva-hours-from-war.mp3 0:06 4 full Picton, Lennox and Nueva: Scars and Stories https://qualla.com/picton-lennox-and-nueva/ Photo credit Createaccount, CC BY-SA 3.0. The brush with war left physical marks. Minefields were laid here, some of the last installed shortly after Argentina turned its attention to the Falklands in 1982, and from 2007 Chilean army and navy de-mining units worked for years to clear them. This was not the islands' first...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/4/w/0/q/picton-lennox-and-nueva-wp/4w0q-picton-lennox-and-nueva-scars-and-stories.mp3 0:06 5 full